Stethoscope ear  tube mounting



p 7, 1966 l. A. SPEELMAN STETHOSCOPE EAR TUBE MOUNTING Filed Oct. 22,1965 INVENTOR.

M y, W

United States Patent 3,275,099 STETHOSCOPE EAR TUBE MOUNTING Irving A.Speelman, Roslyn Heights, N.Y., assignor to Propper ManufacturingCompany, Inc., Long Island City, N.Y., a corporation of New York FiledOct. 22, 1965, Ser. No. 501,490 2 Claims. (Cl. 181-24) The presentinvention relates to stethoscopes.

As is well known, it is required that stethoscopes be constructed sothat they are capable of comfortably adapting themselves to the personwho uses the stethoscope. Inasmuch as a stethoscope is not manufacturedwith any particular person in mind, it is clear that each stethoscopemust have the capability of adapting itself to people who differ quitewidely in their physical characteristics. At the present time,stethoscopes do not fulfill this requirement and many stethoscopes areused which are relatively uncomfortable because they cannot adaptthemselves to the particular person who uses the stethoscope.

Furthermore, it is well known to provide a stethoscope with a number ofdifferent types of microphones any one of which can be respectivelyused, and in order to place a selected microphone in an operatingposition it is essential .to releasably retain the microphone assemblyin a given position on the stethoscope. At the present time, the knownstructure for accomplishing this last result is not satisfactory in thatit is expensive to manufacture and assemble and at the same time doesnot reliably fulfill its intended function.

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide astethoscope which will avoid the above drawbacks.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide astethoscope which is capable of adapting itself to the peculiarities ofthe person who uses the stethoscope and to an extent which heretoforewas not possible with known stethoscopes.

In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide astethoscope with car tubes which are capable of orienting themselves tothe head of the operator in a manner and to an extent which heretoforecould not be achieved.

Also, it is an object of the invention to provide a stethoscope with astructure which will enable it to adapt itself to the particularconfiguration of the ears of the user of the stethoscope.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide anexceedingly simple and inexpensive structure for releasably maintaininga microphone assembly, which includes a plurality of microphones, in anyselected one of a number of different angular positions to reliablyrender a selected type of microphone operative without any danger ofdisplacing the selected microphone from its operative position while atthe same time making it very easy for the operator to change from onetype of microphone .to another whenever desired.

Primarily, the above objects are achieved with the stethoscope of theinvention by providing a structure where the ear tubes are capable ofbeing independently swiveled while positively restrained againstdisengagement from the Y-shaped sound tubes. In one embodiment, the eartubes respectively carry ear plugs capable of adapting themselves andconforming to the ears of the user.

The microphone assembly is mounted in such a way that it can easily beturned on the hollow shaft of the stethoscope .to any one of a number ofselected angular positions while a releasable structure yieldablymaintains the microphone assembly in the selected position in a fullyreliable manner and yet can be easily manipulated to displace onemicrophone away from its operative position and another microphone intothe operative position.

3,275,009 Patented Sept. 27, 1966 The invention is illustrated by way ofexample in the accompanying drawings which form part of the applicationand in which FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of one embodiment of astethoscope according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view, on an enlarged scale, ascompared to FIG. 1, taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 in the direction ofthe arrows and showing the manner in which the ear tubes are mounted forswiveling movement and urging toward each other;

FIG. 3 is a transverse section of the structure of FIG.

' 2 taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2 in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 4 shows the manner in which the ear plugs are mounted on the eartubes, FIG. 4 being taken along line 44 of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale,in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional illustration, also on an enlargedscale, as compared to FIG. 1, showing the manner in which the microphoneassembly is mounted on the hollow shaft of the stethoscope;

FIG. 6 is a sectional plan view taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 1 in thedirection of the arrows and also showing the manner in which themicrophone assembly is mounted on the hollow shaft of the stethoscope,FIG. 6 also being enlarged with respect to the scale of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal sectional illustration of the upperend of an ear tube carrying another embodiment of an ear plug accordingto the present invention.

Referring to the drawings and to FIG. 1 in particular, the stethoscope10 illustrated therein includes a hollow flexible Y-tube assembly 12made of any suitable plastic as is well known in the art, and at itsupper end the assembly 12 has a pair of tubular branching portions 14.These branching portions 14 respectively receive the ear tubes 16 which,as is well known, carry at their upper free ends a pair of ear plugs 18adapted to receive the ears of the operator. As may be seen from FIG. 4the ear plugs 18 are tubular and threaded onto the ear tubes 16.

Within the branching portions 14 of the Y-tube 12 which together providethe stethoscope 10 with the substantially U-shaped configuration shownin FIG. 1 at the upper end of the assembly 12, is positioned springmeans 20 operatively connected to the ear tubes 16 for urging themtoward each other as well as mounting each ear tube 16 for swivelingturning movement independent- .ly of the other ear tube, as will beapparent from the description which follows.

Thus, as is shown most clearly in FIGS. 2 and 3, the spring means 20 isin the form of an elongated leaf spring of U-shaped configurationpositioned within the branches 14 of the Y-tube and having at each endan integral ear or enlarged flaring portion 22 which is bent to atubular or substantially tubular configuration thus providing eachflaring portion 22 with a pair of substantially semicircular channelportions 24 separated from each other by the slot 26 which is formedbetween the free edges of the channel portions 24. Each tubular por- Ition 22 slidably engages a companion ear tube 16 at its lower free endportion which extends into the branch 14 in the manner illustrated inFIG. 2.

However, the substantially tubular formation formed by the channels 24at each end of the spring 20 is not of a constant diameter. As isapparent from FIG. 2, the

free end portion of each ear tube 16 is formed with an annular groove 28:and the tubular formation at each end of the spring 20 provided by thechannel 24 tapers so as to have a reduced end 30 received and clamped inthe groove 28,'so that with this construction while each ear tube 16cannot be removed or withdrawn from the .3 spring 20 at the same time itis capable of freely swiveling about the axis of the tube 16 at itslower free end shown in FIG. 2 where deliberate force is applied toovercome the requisite friction at such connection.

Therefore, with this construction the ear tubes 16 are securelyconnected to the spring 20 disposed internally of the Y-tube withoutrequiring the use of cement, or the like, and at the same time each eartube 16 is capable of being independently swiveled so that theorientation of the upper ends of the tubes 16, Where the plugs 18 aresituated, can be adapted to the particular user of the stethoscope, thusproviding a very comfortable support for the stethoscope on the head ofthe user. The ear tubes are positively restrained against disengagementfrom the spring 20 by the aforementioned connection. Referring now toFIG. 5, it will be seen that the lower end of the Y-tube assembly 12receives in its interior the upper end of a hollow shaft 32 whichterminates distant from the flexible assembly 12 in an enlarged closedend 34 which is secured to said shaft in any conventional manner. Thisenlarged closed end 34 defines with the exterior of the hollow shaft 32a shoulder having an upwardly directed annular surface 36, as viewed inFIG. 5. The shaft 32 is formed with an opening 38 providingcommunication between the exterior of the tube 32 and its hollowinterior 40.

A body 42 is formed with an elongated bore through which the shaft 32slidably extends, and this body 42 carries a plurality of microphones.In the illustrated example the body 42 carries a diaphragm microphone 44of known construction and an open microphone 46 diametrically opposed tothe microphone 44. The microphone 44 has at the crest of its innerrecess an aperture 48 while the microphone 46 has at the crest of itsinner recess an aperture 50 coaxial with the aperture 48, and it will benoted that in the angular position of the body 42 which is illustratedin FIGS. and 6 the common axis of the apertures 48 and 50 coincides withthe axis of the opening 38. Thus, in the position shown the diaphragmmicrophone 44 communicates through the opening 38 with the interior ofthe tube 32 and the ear tubes so that it is microphone 44 which isoperative, while if the body 42 is turned by 180 from the illustratedposition about the shaft 32 it will be the microphone 46 which willcommunicate through its aperture 50 with the hollow interior 40 of theshaft 32 and the ear tubes so that now the microphone 46 will beoperative.

The body 42 is provided with an annular surface 52 directed toward andlocated next to the annular surface 36 of the enlarged end 34 of theshaft 32, and in the illustrated example the annular surface 36 isprovided with a pair of diametrically opposed projections 54 ofknifeshape configuration extending along a common straight line which isnormal to the axis of the shaft 32, so that the knife-edge projections54 extend radially with respect to the axis of the shaft 32. The annularsurface 52 of the body 42 is formed with a pair of diametrically opposedV-grooves 56 which respectively receive the projections 54 in the twopositions of the body 42 where the microphones 44 and 46 arerespectively in communication with the opening 38 and the ear tubes.

In order to releasably maintain the body 42 in a selected angularposition where one or the other of the microphones is operative, aspring means 58 is provided for yieldably urging the projections 54respectively into the recesses 56, so that in this way a releasabledetent arrangement is provided. The spring means 58 takes the form of acoil spring coiled about a portion 33 of the shaft 32 which is ofreduced diameter and situated Within the bore of the body 42 engaging ashoulder of the shaft 32 and the body 42 so as to urge the surface 52against the surface 36 and thus bias the projections 54 respectively inthe recesses 56.

Although the shaft 32 is shown in dot-dash lines at the lower portion ofFIG. 5 displaced downwardly with respect to the body 42 so as toillustrate the manner in which the parts cooperate when the spring 58 iscompressed during a change in the position of the body 42, it will beunderstood that in order to change from one microphone to the other theoperator need only grasp one of the microphones and turn it to aselected orientation, and the projections of V-shaped cross-sectiontogether with the V-shaped grooves 56 will enable the body 42 to becammed out of one position and snapped into the next position, so thatthe structure is extremely convenient to operate while at the same timereliably maintain-ing a selected microphone in the operating position.

In the embodiment of the invention which is illustrated in FIG. 7 an eartube 60 which corresponds to either of the ear tubes 16 and which formsone of a pair of ear tubes 60 of a stethoscope is illustrated carrying atubular ear plug 62. This ear plug 62 performs the same function as theear plug 18 shown in FIG. 4, but in the case of FIG. 7 the ear plug 62is made of a yieldably resilient material such as a suitable formedplastic which may be foam rubber, for example, and thus by choosing aprop er degree of resiliency or yieldability for the plug 62 it iscapable of easily adapting itself with a light pressure to the ear ofthe operator sealing out exterior noises so as to provide a higherdegree of efficiency of sound transmission.

It is apparent, therefore, that the ear tubes of the stethoscope of theinvention because of their capability of swiveling with respect to eachother, as well as the yieldable ear plugs 62 of FIG. 7, enable thestethoscope to adapt itself to a particular user to an extent whichcould not be achieved heretofore, and in addition providing thisparticular highly flexible and adaptable structure with the adjustablemicrophone assembly of FIGS. 5 and 6 enables further adaptation of thestethoscope to the particular operator providing an efficiency ofoperation and a degree of comfort which has not heretofore beenobtainable.

What is claimed is:

1. A stethoscope comprising an elongated flexible tube having at one enda pair of branching tube portions, a pair of rigid elongated ear tubeshaving lower ends received in said branching portions in fluidcommunication therewith, and a U-shaped elongated leaf spring extendingin said branching portions and having end portions interconnecting saidear tubes at said lower ends for biasing the ear tubes towards eachother, said ear tube ends and said spring end portions havinginterengaged complementary fittings, one of said complementary fittingshaving external groove means with the other complementary fitting havinga portion interengaged with said groove means to provide for theindependent swiveling of said ear tubes about the axes thereof foradjusting the ear tubes to the user while positively restraining thedisengagement thereof from said spring and branching portions.

2. In the stethoscope as recited in claim 1, said one complementaryfitting comprising a tubular portion having an annular external groovewith said other fitting comprising a tubular portion overfitted on saidfirst mentioned tubular portion and having a reduced diameter neckportion frictionally seated in said external groove.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 874,092 12/1907Liverpool 181-24 1,585,407 5/1926 Morin 181-24 1,841,078 1/1932 Baird etal. 181-24 2,722,989 11/1955 Tynan 181-24 3,000,463 9/1961 Collins181-24 3,035,656 5/1962 Kebel 181-24 3,169,600 2/ 1965 Thomas 181-24RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner.

STEPHEN J. TOMSKY, Examiner.

1. A STETHOSCOPE COMPRISING AN ELONGATED FLEXIBLE TUBE HAVING AT ONE ENDA PAIR OF BRANCHING TUBE PORTIONS, A PAIR OF RIGID ELONGATED EAR TUBESHAVING LOWER ENDS RECEIVED IN SAID BRANCHING PORTIONS IN FLUIDCOMMUNICATION THEREWITH, AND A U-SHAPED ELONGATED LEAF SPRING EXTENDINGIN SAID BRANCHING PORTIONS AND HAVING END PORTIONS INTERCONNECTING SAIDEAR TUBES AT SAID LOWER ENDS FOR BIASING THE EAR TUBES TOWARDS EACHOTHER, SAID EAR TUBE ENDS AND SAID SPRING END PORTIONS HAVINGINTERENGAGED COMPLEMENTARY FITTINGS, ONE OF SAID COMPLEMENTARY FITTINGSHAVING EXTERNAL GROOVE MEANS WITH THE OTHER COMPLEMENTARY FITTING HAVINGA PORTION INTERENGAGED WITH SAID GROOVE MEANS TO PROVIDE FOR THEINDEPENDENT SWIVELING OF SAID EAR TUBES ABOUT THE AXES THEREOF FORADJUSTING THE EAR TUBES TO THE USER WHILE POSITIVELY RESTRAINING THEDISENGAGEMENT THEREOF FROM SAID SPRING AND BRANCHING PORTIONS.